“‘Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day.”
~ Ezekiel 2:3
Hi James and Ellen,
How would you feel if you were asked to speak in front of a lot of kids? Your grandmaa and grandpaa do not like to speak in front of large groups of guys and gals. Your grandmaa and grandpaa do not mind speaking though in front of small groups of guys and gals. Your grandmaa has been tasked here at OC International headquarters to facilitate and moderate OC International’s monthly two and half day Introduction to OCI orientation sessions. Your grandmaa’s God-given hardwired gift is exhortation – which enables your grandmaa to be able to facilitate and/or moderates small groups of guys and gals in an informal, welcoming kind of way. Your grandpaa thinks that your grandmaa is also a really good teacher. Your grandpaa knows that guys and gals – and kids, listen to your grandmaa and that they remember what your grandmaa has said to them. Before your grandmaa and grandpaa packed up their bags last May to leave Guatemala for the United States – to begin living again in the United States, your grandpaa was asked to take on the responsibilities for an event that takes place at the end of February each year in Guatemala. This event – which is called Intermissions, is for all the missionaries who are living in Guatemala. Intermissions for over fifty years had been driven by four or five of the larger mission agencies that are in Guatemala with these larger mission agencies rotating taking on the responsibilities of seeing to it that Intermissions takes place. Intermissions each year had been a time for the expatriate missionaries who were living in Guatemala to get together for about forty-five hours in one place for a time of having fun, fellowship and spiritual refreshment. Your grandpaa was the Field Director for OC International’s field missionary team – called CART (Central American Regional Team) in Guatemala, when CART’s turn came around to take on the responsibility for the 2000 Intermissions. Intermissions always begins on a Friday afternoon and ends after lunch on Sunday. The attendance for Intermissions had been drastically dropping for several years before Intermissions 2000. Instead of not having Intermissions 2000 – as there had been talk among the mission agencies about discontinuing Intermissions, your grandpaa thought that CART might be able to jumpstart Intermissions. Your grandpaa decided that CART would focus on Intermissions being a memorable fun time for the missionary kids by using a youth team from the United States, having a spirit-filled worship setting by using a worship team from the United States and making it a working conference by having a number of optional workshops on relevant topics. Intermissions 2000 saw a significant bump in attendance. The next two Intermissions conferences – with both having a large number of missionary attendees, were again driven by single missions. Your grandpaa – because your grandpaa felt responsible for creating a monster, would go to the monthly Intermissions planning meetings. Your grandpaa during one of these meetings spoke up and said that he thought that Intermissions could be driven by missionaries and by smaller missions instead of by a single mission agency. The gal who led the meetings looked at your grandpaa and told him ‘to make the change’.
Your grandpaa over several months talked to different guys about a possible paradigm change on how to do Intermissions. Every guy who your grandpaa talked to thought that the new paradigm would be a good change. Your grandpaa met every three or four months with a group of guys and gals. Your grandpaa called this group of guys and gals the framing committee. Your grandpaa chaired the framing committee meetings. The responsibility of the framing committee was to oversee another committee which your grandpaa called the finishing committee. The finishing committee’s responsibility was to oversee Intermissions 2003. On Saturday – during Intermissions 2003, the guy who was moderating everything was to make an appeal – asking for volunteers for Intermissions 2004. George has been a Southern Baptist missionary for years. George moderated the Intermissions 2003 conference. George is a really personable, outgoing guy with a really funny sense of humor. Right before George was to make the appeal to the over three hundred adult missionaries who were attending Intermissions 2003, George looked at your grandpaa and said ‘you do it Gary’. Your grandpaa said ‘okay’. Your grandpaa was not nervous or bothered by the fact that he was suddenly going to be standing in front of a very large crowd of missionaries to . . . a respected, longtime Southern Baptist missionary – who always seemed to be completely comfortable to be up front of a group guys and gals, had communicated his complete confidence in your grandpaa to be able to stand up front and . . . your grandpaa knows how rewarding it really feels to have another guy or gal communicate that he or she has total and complete confidence in him to do something that he or she could easily do himself or herself.
How do you think that Ezekiel felt in Ezekiel 2 when God selected him to be the guy who He wanted to speak to His specially chosen guys and gals? Do you think that Ezekiel really wanted to do what God was asking him to do? Do you think that Ezekiel really felt qualified to do what God was asking him to do? God asked Ezekiel to go to guys and gals – who were His specially chosen guys and gals, who He knew really did not want anything to do with Him. In verse 3 “He said: “‘Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day.” God was communicating to Ezekiel that He had complete confidence in him to do something that He could more easily do Himself. Showing confidence in another kid will help the kid learn confidence. Helping a kid’s confidence grow is a good thing to do.
Ezekiel 2 (457)